Pollen
by Vietta
Summary: Reno's POV. Elena isn't feeling well and Reno needs to manipulate Tseng into getting them both out of work.


**Author's Note: Okay, this is my first attempt at a first person story so let me know if there's anything wrong with it okay? Any aspect of grammar that I've completely stomped on and burned or anything of the like. If you want you can also tell me what you think of the actual plot line, but that's not what I'm really worried about at the moment. ^^ **

**This story is practice for another story I'm trying to write so help is very much appreciated!**

**Btw- It's all Reno's POV.

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Spring is one of my favorite times of year. Every year the trees spew green dust into the air that makes its way into my Laney's nose and she has the cutest allergic reaction I have ever seen. Right now she is having that allergic reaction all over the office, much to Tseng's chagrin. We're running out of tissues, but she looks cute. Her hair is in slight disarray from all the sneezing that sends her head flying forward and if we were anywhere other than work I would sit and play with it to make it worse. Her warm brown eyes are puffy and red and I can see a small film of feverish sweat breaking out on her brow and I know she's about three good sneeze sessions away from being sent home. I also know that she'll refuse to go and that's where my devious plan comes in. She and Tseng will have a loud, pitiful, and sneeze interrupted argument about whether or not she is capable of working. Once it looks like Tseng is going to win the argument I'll offer to take Laney home on the pretense that she can't drive in the condition she's in and pester Tseng into letting me leave too. If I push his buttons just right I'll get to push my unfinished stack of files into Rude's reluctant hands, leave work early, and spend the rest of my evening cuddling Laney until she feels better.

Laney is sneezing again and Tseng's patience is breaking faster than I predicted. He must be having issues with Rufus if his patience is this thin. He's usually got a very predictable and easily manipulated level of tolerance, but today he's looking a bit worn down. "Elena you need to go home."

Laney is so cute when she disagrees. Her nose wrinkles up and she gets these cute little lines across her forehead. Sometimes I tick her off just so she'll make that angry face at me. "I'm fine Tseng!"

"Tell that to the giant booger that you just attacked your computer screen with." Tseng is an ass. The booger isn't that big! Oh well, at least he's nice enough to hand her a tissue while I try not to glare daggers at him and pretend to do my work. He's going to be really confused when he gets a file covered in doodles.

Laney wipes off her screen and coughs a little. I should probably make her some tea when we get home. "You're exaggerating Tseng, the booger isn't that big!" I love it when me and Laney think on the same wavelength.

Tseng runs his hand over his face, a gesture he usually saves for me. I think I can spare Laney a little of Tseng's facepalm time though. "Does it really matter how big it is? The fact that you're shooting anything out of your body at all means you should probably go home."

I love the way Laney rolls her eyes, especially when she's not rolling them at me. "Tseng I'm fine! Really!" It doesn't help her argument at all when she sneezes.

Tseng rolls his eyes back at her and it pisses me off. Nothing looks cute when Tseng does it, especially when Tseng hands me a huge pile of paperwork. At least when Laney hands me work I can think up all sorts of delicious payback, when Tseng does it I'm required to lie through my teeth and say that I'll get it done. Done it a relative term. "Elena you're sweaty, pale, coughing, and sneezing on every exposed surface you can find. How is that fine?" I always like pretending that stupid red dot thing on Tseng's forehead is a sniper target when he's an ass. I don't like it when he's mean to Laney, I don't like it one bit. He's going to find something not so very nice in his coffee tomorrow.

Laney sneezes again before she can retort and I can see the subtle change in her eyes from fighting Laney to defeated Laney. Now is my time to pounce. I clear my throat to get their attention and Tseng jumps. He's not used to me being quiet for any amount of time and it always makes him nervous when I decide to talk. "I can take Laney home."

Tseng frowns and I can tell he's trying to think up a reason for me to stay. "You have work to do." Tseng has some really stupid excuses for trying to make me stick around sometimes. It's not like I ever get my work done. Like I said earlier, done is a relative term. I always make sure I put the finishing touches on the doodles I leave in the margins. When I pass them off to Rude he always lets me know where my doodles are falling short. It's one of the reasons Rude is my best friend. He doesn't judge me by what I don't do, he judges me by what I do do.

"If you don't think she can work then what makes you think she can drive home? She's got that itchy watery eye thing going and her vision is probably blurry. Are you saying you'd rather have Laney get in a car wreck than let me take her home?" I'm feeling rather smug but I manage to keep the triumph out of my face and voice. The key to dragging Tseng into these arguments is to play it close to the chest. One slip of emotion and he can turn the argument into a verbal slaughter.

Tseng shifts slightly, only a miniscule change of stance that most people would never notice. It's that shift that lets me know I've won. "Fine. Take her home and make sure she gets some rest. I expect you both back in tomorrow." Either my argument is too good for him to fight or he really doesn't want to have a battle of wits with me. Something must really be bugging the shit out of him if he's passing up a verbal war with me. That's usually his favorite pastime.

"I said I'm fine!" Oops, spoke too soon. Laney is back in argumentative mode but I'm pretty sure I can smooth away any scruples she has about leaving.

I get up and cross the office to begin working my Reno charm. A few carefully chosen words and this weakly burning argument will be doused. I make sure to coat all of my words with a pinch of sugar before I try convincing her to go along with my plan. "Laney ya don't feel good and I can tell. I want ya ta come home and get some rest, alright? A day resting at home with all the windows closed and a good shot of allergy meds will do ya some good." So long as I slap on some puppy dog eyes and make it sound like it wasn't Tseng's idea that she go home she'll crumble. She's got a complex about proving herself to Tseng. I've never really understood the purpose behind it, it's not like she can get a promotion for all the extra work she takes on. Turk is the highest rank a Turk can get. Scratch that, living breathing Turk is the highest rank we can get. I don't understand her ambition I don't question it either. Its probably one of those girl things.

She sneezes a few more times and Tseng backs up a few steps. I stay right where I'm at. Why the hell should I care if she gets a few boogies on me? We've shared every other bodily fluid imaginable and its not like allergies are contagious. She takes a clean tissues and wipes her steadily running red nose. "Fine. I'll go home." She's still trying to sound indignant and mistreated and I like the tone it lends her voice. I don't know what it is about her trying to be angry and failing that makes me want to wrap her up in my arms and plant a big wet one on her cheek. She'd probably kick my ass if I tried that right now though. She's got a thing about displays of affection at work. Another one of those girl things I suppose.

I pull Laney out of her chair and let her grab anything from her desk that she wants to take back to the apartment. She tucks everything under her arm and won't let me help her carry anything, probably trying to retain some measure of dignity. I don't know why she thinks she's lost any, its not like its her fault the trees decided to piss pollen all over. I stick my tongue out at Rude and practically drag Laney out of the office. He's going to have to finish all the paperwork I've been vandalizing and he lets me know how pissed about it he is by giving my the finger when Tseng turns around to go back to his own desk. I'll make it up to him later. He does my work and I pay for his drinks when we go out on the weekends. Seems like a pretty fair system to me and he doesn't complain.

Laney protests very little as we make our way to the parking lot and I force her to hand me the keys. She's a lot more complacent now that she's allowing herself to be sick. That's another thing I love about Laney. Once I get her to see things from my perspective she usually agrees and goes along with whatever I've got planned. It's not that she never disagrees with me or tells me no, she does both a lot and sometimes its drives me nuts. She's actually pretty fun to argue with when she's got all her wits about her, but since she's sick she's a bit of a wet blanket.

She doesn't talk much on the ride home. Mostly she just sneezes and coughs and sniffles at me, her head feeling too stuffy and thick for her to want to talk. I don't blame her. I've got allergies and when they act up I feel like killing whoever decided to bring their cat hair into my breathing space. It's a good thing Laney's a lot better at controlling her indignation at being sick than I am. I'm pretty sure Avalanche would be all over her if she went around chopping trees for painting everything a sickly green with pollen.

I get her home and set her on the couch with a blanket, a box of tissues, a huge steaming glass of her favorite tea, and a bottle of allergy medication. The blanket will keep her comfy and warm while she snuggles with me, the tissues will keep her snot off the blanket, the tea will help her throat and soothe her aching head, and the allergy meds will knock her on her ass for a few hours. I sit next to her and pull her close, leaning her prettily puffed red face into my shoulder while she drinks her tea and wipes her nose. I try to find something on television that she might like but there's really nothing good on. At least nothing she thinks is good. I don't know why girls don't like watching gory torture movies. Watching others suffer always makes me feel better when I'm sick.

"How ya feelin' Laney-pie?" I know how she's feeling, she's feeling like crap. I still ask though, just to make conversation. Things will be tense for me until I know she's at least marginally comfortable.

She sniffs and coughs a little before answering. "I feel like shit." Its plainly obvious to us both that she feels like shit. Still, girls like it when you ask about stuff like that and Laney is no exception.

"Is the tea helpin' any?" I like her tea. It's apple and cinnamon flavored and tastes like scalding heaven. It is the perfect sick tea and sometimes I feel like being sick just so I can sit at home and drink it like a fish.

She nods and stuffs her head into the crook of my shoulder while she takes another sip. "Its delicious. Thank you."

"You're welcome doll." I start playing with that wonderfully mussed and sneeze ruffled hair. I love it when she has bed head, especially when she hasn't been to bed. "Got a movie ya wanna watch?"

She snuggles into me a little more and I can tell I'm wracking up good boy-friend points by the dozens. "This is fine."

"You sure?" I know she hates watching chocobo races and truth be told I'm not terribly fond of them either. I just think chocobos are cute. Is it a crime to think chocobos are cute? Hell no. Would I lose about fifty man-points if I told Laney I think chocobos are cute? Hell yes. Is it worth it? Nope, no way. I'll keep that little secret to myself and let her think I actually like watching the races.

She nods again and sets her tea cup on the coffee table, a sure sign that the allergy pills are kicking in and she's feeling sleepy. In a few minutes she'll probably lay down and snuggle into my lap, something I adore about her when she's sick. Normally she's not big on cuddling with me, mostly because I can't keep cuddling from turning into more _adult_ situations long enough for it to be classified as cuddling. When she's sick though I can keep my hands to myself. Well, for the most part anyways. I don't plan on removing my hand from her hair anytime soon.

"I thought you hated chocobo races?" I don't _think_ she hates chocobo races, I _know_ she hates chocobo races as she usually makes me turn them off after about five minutes.

She shrugs and snuggles down to put her head in my lap with a contented sigh. Those allergy meds are good stuff. Twenty minutes after the pills are downed Laney is feeling nice and tired. "Chocobos are cute so I don't mind."

I smirk at the television as she says this. I wonder if she's figured out that's why I watch the races in the first place. "So you'll watch it because you think they're cute?"

Laney giggles into my lap, "Uh-huh. Don't you think they're cute?"

Man-points or not I'm gonna tell her the truth. I hate lying. Its a job requirement and I'm good at it, but I don't like it one bit. My ma taught me to be honest and when I'm not at work honest is what I'll be. "It's the only reason I watch."

Laney tilts her head back to look up at me and I notice that her nose has stopped dripping like the leaky faucet in our kitchen. She keeps asking me to fix it and if I could I would, but I don't know the first thing about plumbing. "Really? The only reason? You don't care who wins?" She frowns and gets those cute little nose and forehead wrinkles again. I love those tiny little creases in her otherwise flawless face. "But you always cheer!"

I smile at her and run my fingers through that wonderfully twisted mane of yellow. "I cheer for the one that's cutest. I don't want some ugly sparrow winning the race!"

She giggles and pulls me down for a quick kiss before turning her head back to the television. I'm pretty sure that I haven't lost nearly as many man points as I thought I would. In fact I may have gained some. I keep forgetting that girls like to pretend their boyfriends are sensitive and romantic.

"Feelin' any better?" I'm pretty sure she is by the way her eyelids are drooping, but she likes when I ask so I'll ask.

She nods and after a few more races go by she's out like a light. I keep threading my fingers through her hair though. Its not often that I get to muss it up and I'll take advantage of the time I get to play with it.

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Author's Note: Soooooo whatcha think? Is it an egregious abuse of grammar or the cute fluff I wanted?**


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